Police have detained a doctor who performed mass sterilisation surgeries in central India that left 13 women dead and dozens ill in hospital, a senior police officer has said.

Like many other parts of Australia, regional towns in New South Wales are in the grip of an ice epidemic. In the town of Wellington, in the state’s central west, the problem is so bad the place has been dubbed “Little Antarctica”.

The extraordinary generosity of ABC viewers – including an anonymous donation of $200,000 – has stunned the management and medical staff of East Timor’s Bairo Pite Clinic and will dramatically improve care and conditions at the overburdened, independent hospital.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 14th November 2014. Read by Rebecca Foster. Health News

The extraordinary generosity of ABC viewers – including an anonymous donation of $200,000 – has stunned the management and medical staff of East Timor’s Bairo Pite Clinic and will dramatically improve care and conditions at the overburdened, independent hospital.

Bairo Pite and its medical chief, Dr Dan Murphy, featured recently in the Foreign Correspondent program The Clinic.

The plight of one sick little boy in particular – eight-year-old Sergio, who was stricken with a cancer that had disfigured his face and neck – prompted many in the audience to ask what they could do to help.

Bairo Pite management established a crowdsource fundraising portal and set a target of $30,000 to fund Australian-based medical treatment for Sergio, and the donations poured in.

Specialist medical expertise was mobilised in Australia and the hope was that the boy would be well enough to fly to Australia for life-saving surgery and treatment.

But in the end the money and the best intentions of some of Australia’s leading paediatric and oncology specialists arrived too late for Sergio.

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In an email to contributors, Bairo Pite offered to refund donations to the Sergio fund but hoped the money could be used to help save the lives and relieve the suffering of other critically ill patients.

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Dr Murphy, an expat American GP who has been the driving force behind the little hospital for 16 years, said he and his staff had been overwhelmed by the generosity of Foreign Correspondent viewers.

To date, more than $500,000 has been raised since the program went to air and it is already making a difference.

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